And the molten monstrous visage Saw the pageants, saw the torments, Down the golden dust undazzled saw the gladiators go, Heard the cry in the closed desert Te salutant morituri, As the slaves of doom went stumbling, shuddering, to the shades below.

“Lord of Life, of lyres and laughter, Those about to die salute thee, At thy godlike fancy feeding men with bread and beasts with men, But for us the Fates point deathward In a thousand thumbs thrust downward, And the Dog of Hell is roaring through the lions in their den.”

I have seen, where a strange country

Opened its secret plains about me,

One great golden dome stand lonely with its golden image, one

Seen afar, in strange fulfillment,

Through the sunlit Indian summer

That Apocalyptic portent that has clothed her with the Sun.

She too looks on the Arena Sees the gladiators grapple,She whose names are Seven Sorrows and the Cause of All Our Joy, Sees the pit that stank with slaughter Scoured to make the courts of morning For the cheers of jesting kindred and the scampering of a boy.

“Queen of Death and deadly weeping Those about to live salute thee, Youth untroubled; youth untutored; hateless war and harmless mirth And the New Lord's larger largesse Holier bread and happier circus, Since the Queen of Sevenfold Sorrow has brought joy upon the earth.”

Burns above the broad arena Where the whirling centuries circle, Burns the Sun-clothed on the summit, golden-sheeted, golden shod, Like a sun-burst on the mountains, Like the flames upon the forest Of the sunbeams of the sword-blades of the Gladiators of God.

And I saw them shock the whirlwind Of the World of dust and dazzle: And thrice they stamped, a thunderclap; and thrice the sand-wheel swirled; And thrice they cried like thunder On Our Lady of the Victories, The Mother of the Master of the Masterers of the World.

“Queen of Death and Life undying Those about to live salute thee; Not the crawlers with the cattle; looking deathward with the swine, But the shout upon the mountains Of the men that live for ever Who are free of all things living but a Child; and He was thine.”